@Ice-Cube: A power outage won't hurt his story at all. Not entirely familiar with this console (was too young for video games at the time) but even if we're talking about SRAM here, data will still be intact so long as its lithium-ion has a charge. You can infer this too from the fact he turned it off when he moved out and had it plugged in as soon as he could.
@hystavito: In a business stand point though that doesn't make sense. If they stood tough against clear scammers (regardless if they have kids), they would still be in the right side of things provided of course they can prove these parents are up to no good (which they obviously and easily can). But giving in to scammers (if they really are one) doesn't do them any good. As a matter of fact that'll be a PR disaster. If they give in, it's like saying "if you buy from Target, you just might get a box full of rocks because, we'll, sh*t happens." Especially during holiday season when consumers are racking up purchases, it's a doubt you wouldn't ever want your customers to have on your operations. So yeah, if Target can clear itself out of this lie, it most definitely would. But that wasn't the case.
@gotrekfabian: Not exactly or personally familiar with Target's operations but as some pointed out below, it's most likely lapses from returns. And from the fact Target rectified the situation tells you they know and acknowledge that they messed up. I mean, if the parents were just trying to pull a fast one on Target, Target would've toughened up to protect its image as it can easily figure this all out--trace the unit all the way to a Sony warehouse all sealed til it reached the store and point out that it was never sold and returned before reaching this kid.
Seems like a lot of people are missing the point. Whatever this kid believes in (or the fact his parents encourage him to believe Santa) is besides the point and quite frankly none of anyone's business. Beliefs are relative. It's valid and real to the person who's believing whatever it is he's believing. And relax, it's not like the kid is going to believe Santa for the rest of his life so long as his parents don't tell him he's not real. The thing here is a kid who's reasonably excited to receive a gift this Christmas got a mean-spirited joke instead while his parents are deprived of what they paid for (albeit initially since Target replaced the unit) all because Target couldn't get their sh*t together.
@klugenbeel: I'm actually wondering if this guy has any endorsement value in the first place. Well , his music's sh*t so if anything, I'm actually inclined to think whatever he endorses as good (or bad) is actually the opposite.
NIckEs' comments